Özgür Özel's call to AKP voters

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel spoke before a rally to be held in Trabzon, the hometown of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is imprisoned in Silivri Prison.

Answering journalists' questions, Özgür Özel addressed AKP voters. Özel said:

In an environment where the Justice and Development Party (AKP) summons voters to Ankara whenever two candidates emerge in a district or province and forcibly reduces the number of candidates to one, the CHP is a party that even sets up ballot boxes in its own neighborhoods. This is certainly difficult for Justice and Development Party members to grasp, but I invite all our AK Party citizens who admire and envy this democracy to return to the home of Atatürk, the Republican People's Party. I call on AK Party members to leave the party that has driven this country into poverty, unemployment, and youth into despair, and return to their homeland.

When asked about the AKP's three consecutive losses to the CHP in the TBB elections, Özel responded by giving the example of Erdoğan's four defeats to İmamoğlu. Özel made the following statement:

Let's not be unfair to Ahmet Metin Genç. Ekrem İmamoğlu defeated their leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, four times in a row. So, he shouldn't be upset. If he could have, Erdoğan would have.

Source: News Center